Dreams of Falling

So Wife and I have recently moved, and you know what that means - a new library to explore! (I mean, lots of other things, too, but I have a vague theme to stick to, here.) Specifically, in this case, the discovery of a CD in the Soundtrack section, labeled The Best of Anime.

Hmmm, says I, and home it comes.

( Let's kick it old-school - and by that I mean that this CD came out in 1998. )

It's a small museum, we said. We can fit it in on a travel day, we said. We'll have time to sign up for a slot to get our portraits dawn manga-style, perhaps poke our heads into the conference being held there at the same time.

( How does the saying go? Women make plans and God laughs? )

Sometimes you go out on fannish pilgrimage, and sometimes you stumble across something that might or might not be intentionally fannish. In Japan, they try to make it easy to stumble (see also: Pokemon).

( Actual accidental finds... )

( Finds where Japan made it easy to stumble... )

( And finally, an 'accidental' find or two. )

I don't have nearly as many photos of this, for two reasons: first, they don't allow photos inside the museum. Second, the day we went, it was bucketing rain outdoors, so our desire to linger outside (where photos are allowed) and take photos was, shall we say, minimal.

( Photos here! )

( And the write-up! )

* I apparently watch all the right anime to know what food to order, but all the wrong anime to know what living in Japan is like. (...it doesn't help that my taste in anime is not, generally, 'slice of life.')

* Train stations in Japan are absolutely not built for people in wheelchairs/using walkers/otherwise physically disabled. A few select stations have a setup that allows a wheelchair on without help, but only a few.To make up for this, train station staff are amazing and will in fact escort you three blocks, using a little portable ramp to get your wheelchair over big curbs, to help you make your transfer. (The one catch, of course, is that you must let them know you're there and using their station, even if there's no one not at the specific station entrance you used. Otherwise you may have to hit the emergency button on a train to allow your wife in a wheelchair to get off. Ask me how I know.)

* Taking a taxi in Kyoto, specifically, is an experience: the taxi driver would pick us up on a main street, then dive into a twisting maze of narrow little back streets, only to pop out again a block from our hotel. Frequently the back streets involved squeezing past pedestrians, bicyclists, and/or other cars going the opposite direction, even when there did not look like nearly enough space. Suddenly the trash talking from INITIAL D ("You could totally have passed me, you had six whole centimeters!") looks a lot less shonen-implausible.

* Mountain roads in Japan really are Like That.

* So are Shinjuku and Asakusa.

More details, commentary, and photos when I am not utterly jet-lagged!

So at the mall the other day, I wandered into an Anime Merchandise store, and wound up playing the game of Do I Recognize Any Of These Characters. Answer: mostly! But I was helped by the fact that half the store was NARUTO*. ...of which, ironically, I have watched maybe one episode. I have seen AMVs and gifs and cosplay and fanart, and I have read fanfic and impassioned posts about how X character is awesome and/or terrible, but not seen the actual show.

Now this is absolutely potentially leading me astray (:cough: GUNDAM WING :cough:) Fannish osmosis is not infallible, and a thing turning up repeatedly in fanfic and fanart does not necessarily mean it's canon (see also: fanon, definition of).

And yet.

I recognized the NARUTO characters in that shop (and the BOKU NO HERO ACADEMIA characters, of which series I've seen one episode, and the ONE PIECE characters, of which I've read the first few volumes of the manga, and - well, no, I couldn't tell you which ATTACK ON TITAN characters are which, but at least I recognized where they were from). I can recognize unlabelled fanart of Aizawa (BnHA) or Kakashi (Naruto) - although please don't ask me to identify images of Fair-Haired Boy kissing Dark-Haired Boy, because that's a sucker's game and I'm not playing unless you at least handicap it by naming the source material first. And I've gone and watched series because of fannish osmosis, because what I learned from AMVs and gifs and fanart and fanfic and impassioned posts on Tumblr or Livejournal or Dreamwidth.

I don't have a conclusion. I'm not sure I had an argument. Just that there's something reassuring to me, to be able to recognize other people's shiny things, even if they're not mine, because fannish osmosis.

*Also they had a set of chibi Harry Potter characters, including Snape. I like Snape as a character! This does not make chibi Snape less disturbing.

RESTAURANT TO ANOTHER WORLD/ISEKAI SHOKUDO - 2017 & 2021 (Japan), available on Crunchyroll and Funimation
Amount watched: Season 1 (12 episodes)
Official description: (From Crunchyroll) There is a certain restaurant in the first basement level of a multi-tenant building in one corner of a shopping street near the office district. The historical restaurant, marked by a sign with a picture of a cat, is called "Western Cuisine Nekoya." This restaurant looks completely normal through the week, but on Saturdays, it opens in secret exclusively to some very unique guests. During these hours, doors in various areas of a parallel world open to allow customers of many different races and cultures into the restaurant.

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( Actual opinion. Short version: what are your feelings about Japanese food? )

LOVELESS - 2005 Japan/2006 US, possibly available streaming (a web-search showed me various sites that claimed to have it) but not on any of the major platforms
Amount watched: 5 of 12 episodes
Official description: Twelve-year old Aoyagi Ritsuka is left with his insane mother as his only family when his brother, Seimei, is killed suddenly. After moving to a new school, he meets Agatsuma Soubi, who claims to have known his brother. Ritsuka eventually discovers that Soubi and Seimei used to be a fighting pair, whereby Soubi was the "Fighter" and Seimei was the "Sacrifice". Now that Seimei is gone, Ritsuka has inherited Soubi, who will become his "Fighter". After learning that Seimei was killed by an organisation known as the "Seven Moons", Ritsuka decides to investigate into his brother's death, with the sometimes useless help of Soubi, along the way.

[Incidental note: the icon I'm using for this post is, in fact, of Soubi.]

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( And my actual opinion, which is complicated because dear God is this one problematic, and not just in a catch-phrase kind of way. )

YAMI NO MATSUEI/DESCENDANTS OF DARKNESS - 2000(Japan)/2008 (US), available on Prime for additional cost
Amount watched: All (13 episodes)
Official description: Even after death, life is full of paperwork and criminals. Tsuzuki Asato is a 26 year old, happy-go-lucky, and dorky shinigami (god of death) whose job is to make sure that those who are dead remain dead and stay in their proper realms. Even though he's had this job for over 70 years, he is in the worst division with horrible pay. He also has a knack for not keeping partners (since shinigami work in pairs), but now he seems to have one that will stick around; stubborn, smart-mouthed, serious and defensive 16 year old, Kurosaki Hisoka. With each case they investigate, they come closer to the conspiracies of the serial killer Dr. Muraki Kazutaka. Tsuzuki's relationship with Hisoka is growing stronger and closer...but there is a dark past to how Tsuzuki died that will not give him peace.

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( Actual opinion. )